Please consult your references and go forth, see them blooming, take good pictures for the Almanac, mark their location, and come back in two months and collect seed for us all. Do check the plant characteristics and be sure what you're collecting! As to quantity, PCI growing in the wild are far less accessible than those in your back yard; please gather at least a dozen pods.

    For those who will be collecting and/or submitting seed from wild iris populations, here's a suggestion from Tim Ross, a recently returned former member:   “For each seed lot, it would be helpful to have the state, county, physiographic unit (such as “Gervis Hills” or “Polecat Creek Canyon”) and a directional location from the nearest town in the general area (such as “3.2 miles WSW of Hannibal along Willitts Road”). As a (former) field and herbarium botanist, I would consider such information to be the bare minimum acceptable for a field collection. Additional info like flower color is a plus.”   Many of our members are species enthusiasts and will appreciate your care.

    From your gardens, we'd especially like to offer seed of named varieties not previously included in our listings. So if you're growing something not on last year's list, save several pods for the Seed Bank.

    Also, in support of the quest to breed hardier PCI, we'd like to receive PCI seed (of named varieties, planned crosses, hardy seedlings, or garden-grown species) from growers outside the areas to which PCI are native—i.e., non-west-coast USA, and especially foreign.

    If you're making a deliberate cross to contribute seed, cover your intended pod parent with a panty-hose “bag” while still in bud to prevent unwanted premature pollination. After it opens and you remove the bag and make the cross, remove the falls of the now-pregnant flower to prevent late contamination, and shake out the “bag” before moving it to the next candidate bud.

    Send your contribution to the next Seed Distribution (posted not later than September 15, 2002) to:

    If your pods aren't ripe by then, please send word of your intentions to the above address, or e-mail to dcthree@juno.com so we can at least include them in the listing. Good hunting!!!

June25, 2002

POSTSCRIPT     Legal and Ethical Collecting.   A letter from Carol Bornstein, of the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, reminds members to be sure to check the protected status of any plants or seeds collected in the wild. Collecting from public lands requires a state or federal permit.

August 2, 2002